❝ I genuinely thought the worst of this nightmare was over ❞
Halle Brewster told a lie, and the secrets kept growing. After slaying one stalker, another reared its nasty head, and Halle was starting to wonder if she'd ever be free from the friendshi...
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Thunder clapped outside the Hastings house, waking Aria from her sleep. Tiredly rubbing her eyes, Aria was met with the open side-door once her vision cleared. Her hand reached out behind her, tapping Hanna awake. "Hanna," she said lowly. She then moved onto Halle, asleep on the chair they brought in last night, a blanket brought up to her chin. She leaned out and shook Halle's legs. "Halle... Halle..."
Hanna groaned, having been woken from her sleep. She looked around, her brain still foggy and asked, "Where's Emily and Spencer?"
"I don't know," Aria said.
"My head hurts too much for this," Halle said, her brows knitted as she felt a dull pain across her forehead. She blinked away her tiredness and craned her neck; that was the last time she would be sleeping in an armchair. She got up, letting out a squeak from stretching out her body, and headed to the kitchen. Halle ran the tap and filled a glass with water, hoping to wet the scratchiness of her throat.
"I need an aspirin and a trough of water," whined Hanna, pressing her palm to her head in hope of easing the throbbing. Her other hand shot out towards Halle, making gimme-movements. "Share?"
Focused on the open door, Aria stood up and ventured forward. "Emily?" she called out, hoping for an answer. She got one, only it came from another direction.
Spencer appeared on the stairs, clearly more put-together and awake than the others. "She's gone," she answered, vividly reliving history.
Halle came to stand beside Hanna, passing over the glass to her. "What do you mean she's gone?" Halle asked, lost.
Panic-struck eyes told them all the severity of Spencer's worry. "I've looked everywhere."
Seeing her phone on the table, Hanna's hand instantly darted out and grasped at it. She quickly clicked on Emily's contact and pressed call, impatiently listening to the dial-tone ring out.
When Emily did at last answer the phone, the girls didn't have the chance to breath a collective sigh of belief. Before they knew it, they were piling into Spencer's car and driving in total darkness towards the cemetery. They went to plot forty-four, finding a weeping Emily and an open grave. Halle went to Emily first, coaxing her away. The grave was completely bare, robbed of Alison's coffin.
Emily stumbled back. She lowered her body to the dirt, exhausted and crying softly. Her body shook with her tears, too drunk to understand what she had done. Hanna joined her on the ground, crouching to comfort her, as Halle still stood, frantically scanning the grounds for anything — for anyone.
"How can she not remember anything?" Aria asked.
"She's totally out of it," whispered Spencer in defence of their friend. "She's still drunk."
